Frames of isolation: Recording memory and loss in Mati Diop's In My Room

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dc.contributor.authorBernard, Brittanyen
dc.contributor.editorBrett, Oliveren
dc.contributor.editorHarries, Rhiannonen
dc.date.accessioned2026-09-01T14:21:10Z
dc.date.available2026-09-01T14:21:10Z
dc.date.issued2026-09-04en
dc.description.abstractThis article investigates French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop’s engagement with collective and personal memory in her short documentary, In My Room (2020), made during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Drawing on Michael Renov’s notion of domestic ethnography, as well as a recontextualisation of the “home movie” as historical testimony, I argue that Diop’s framing of domestic space and its markers of personal identity bear witness to the shared memory of the pandemic. At the same time, the film addresses issues of historical trauma and diasporic experience that recur throughout Diop’s oeuvre. Echoing Chantal Akerman’s 2006 essay film Là-bas, Diop’s documentary infuses the domestic imagery of her Paris apartment with a diegetic soundscape of quotidian ambient noise, supplemented by a series of voice recordings of her grandmother, Maji, as she loses her memory before her death. In its rigorous attention to windows and framing, in combination with oral testimony, In My Room emerges as a layered cinematic mediation of memory, loss, and historical trauma.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationBernard, B. (2026) 'Frames of isolation: Recording memory and loss in Mati Diop’s In My Room', Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 31, pp. 69–83. https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.31.04en
dc.identifier.doi10.33178/alpha.31.04en
dc.identifier.endpage83en
dc.identifier.issued31
dc.identifier.journaltitleAlphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Mediaen
dc.identifier.startpage69en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/19150
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherFilm and Screen Media, University College Corken
dc.relation.ispartofAlphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Mediaen
dc.rights© 2026, the Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.titleFrames of isolation: Recording memory and loss in Mati Diop's In My Roomen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media. Issue 31: Pandemic Documentary: Negotiating “Cramped Space”